Also, if they are looking to energize an actual anti-war movement in the empire of pod people and inertia, why aren't they covering in detail the two greatest acts of pillaging of the 21st century: what the US government and Occupation did when it took over the UN's oil-for-food funds and what the US Occupation of Iraq has actually done with hundreds of billions of dollars of federal funding?
1. I'm glad to see that NK agrees with me circa 2002.
Like CP, it's sickening when she writes things like:
>>It doesn't mean blindly cheerleading for "the
resistance." Because there isn't just one
resistance in Iraq. Some elements of the armed
resistance are targeting Iraqi civilians as they
pray in Shia mosques - barbaric acts that serve
the interests of the Bush administration by
feeding the perception that the country is on the
brink of civil war and therefore US forces must
remain in Iraq. Not everyone fighting the US
occupation is fighting for the freedom of all
Iraqis; some are fighting for their own elite
power. That's why we need to stay focused on
supporting the demands for self-determination,
not cheering any setback for US empire.>>
For one thing, she doesn't address Shia-on-Shia violence at all. This is quite possibly a huge source of these attacks on Shia shrines (which are not really translatable as 'mosques' if you get into the technicalities of translation from the Arabic). And likewise she says nothing about Kurd-on-Kurd violence. So she's still full of shit about the actual nature of the Resistance. I guess it's metaphysical for so many educated Americans. They simply can not bring themselves to understand something like a Resistance.
The basic plan was for permanent occupation of Iraq, not democratization and benevolent reconstruction--as the permanent bases sitting on the rubble that is Afghanistan now testify to. The US's desire to have Iraqi-funded permanent bases in Iraq was supposed to be possible by reconfiguring Iraq into a weak federation and dealing with those parts that wanted in (secular Kurds--not the Sunni version now fighting the US, secular Shia, middle of the road Shia) in on the scheme.
2. The big question to be asking all these journalists like NK and CP calling--however enthusiastically or reluctantly they call for an end to the occupation (presumably founded as much on their time in the US as it is on three trips in 6 months while embedded with the military)--the big question is:
Why is there no real anti-war movement in the US?
3. To answer my own question, I will say this: it's because of the most basic beliefs of the majority of Americans. That they have to stay the course because the altenrative would be worse (and hey, 4 out of 5 Iraqi merchants, some who just got contracts with the quisling government in the green zone interviewed by Christian Parenti--or some hapless CNN goofball just arrived from Cairo for that matter--say the same thing). That the US is there to stop the nihilism, the destruction, the violence, etc. etc.
4. But underlying that belief (the great meme that combines with 'national security' to make the US the empire of the pod people) is this piece of reasoning, which is the source of disagreement on this list. That is, that the insurgency is something other than what it is. THE LIES ARE: It's holdout Baathists sitting on caches of bombs and cash(never mind that the Baathists have largely repudiated Saddam, that the majority of Baathists were Shia, etc.). No wait, it's Sunni fundamentalists, largely foreign elements led by al Zarqawi (never mind that he was reported dead in 2003 with more credibility than reports of WMD, and AT THAT TIME his existence was all-important to the US for a false linkage of Saddam with Al Qaeda, and connection they now make directly with al Zarqawi and OBL having public conversations, get real).
The actual 'insurgency' is Iraqi and it's anti-Occupation. As to its exclusive Sunni nature, the ruins of Sadr City and Najaf belie this. Also when you say Sunni, you have to take into consideration that if the Sunni Arabs connect up with the majority Sunni Kurds, they have at least in theory numbers to rival the Shia (especially if you take away the nationalist, anti-occupation elements of the Shia and put them on the side of the Resistance, where they now fight). This is not to fantasize about some super bloc of Sunnis, but rather to show what a fraud the idea of a monolithic bloc of Shia is.
It's an extremely frustrating time to talk even with the best informed parts of the US because many of you seem to be under the sway, eventually, subconsciously, of the vast propaganda arrayed against you. Even if you can't think the clean thoughts, you just go tune in a DVD or video game. Or perhaps you think seeing both side to both sides is going to get you somewhere besides a fence post permanently shoved up your ass, if you'll allow me a colourful metaphor--and image.
Now if only I could get that book contract to visit Iraq. I have friends in Mosul I would like to see. I have a box of toys for two war orphans they have adopted (they are Sunni but they have adopted two Shia toddlers who have lost their parents and guardians to US bombs).
Fugazy
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